Previews

Medal of Honor: Airborne

There are three specific multiplayer modes in MoH:A, which are straight-up Team Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch Airborne and finally Objective Airborne. The latter will see you and your teammates trying to capture and hold down three neutral flags which are spread out across the various war-torn maps. A point is scored each time all three are fully in your side's possession, which is further governed by a regular match timer. Defending or assaulting these key points leads to some pretty fearsome gunslinging.

EA has also implemented a nice weapons upgrade system whereby the players can get further usage from their guns, grenades and melee attacks. For example, a regular Garand rifle's upgrade allows the owner to jam special rifle-propelled grenades into the muzzle and bust out an impromptu lobshot weapon. A basic melee gun-butt swipe attack is replaced with a much more deadly knife swipe attack, and the infamous Thompson machine gun becomes the proud owner of a larger-capacity ammunition magazine.

These upgrades can be used more easily in player matches versus ranked online matches, where you must earn the right to use them. Player matches see a kind of simple experience point system implemented whereby the more a weapon is used to deal damage, the quicker it will become eligible for the all-important upgrade. There's a good selection of Axis and Allied weapons -- all of which are naturally authentic -- and the addition of the upgrade system helps keep things fresh.

A decent number of maps, somewhere in the region of 10 or so, see many of the more famous airborne campaigns from history make an appearance. There's no question that EA has been doing its research to make the appearance of the environments as appealing and realistic as possible.

One complaint that can be leveled at the game currently is that when shots connect with an enemy there's no real sense of how much damage you're dishing out. This stems from large on-screen reticules and the kickback of most of the weapons, and until you actually see your target fall over, it's a little bit tough to know if your aim's spot-on. This is less of a worry when using the excellent Springfield sniper rifle and scope, but compared to other WWII shooters, and shooters in general, MoH:A feels a little lightweight in terms of a reaction from the target.

On the whole, the high production values and the core gameplay remains solid at this point, and this appears to be a fine entry into the franchise. Do gamers really need yet another WWII shooter? MoH:A will hopefully bring enough new elements to the table to make it stand out from the crowd, and while we're expecting the single-player to be less adventurous than the multiplayer offering, the package as a whole certainly has appeal. We'll be eager to check out the final product when it ships later this month.